John F. Kerry Quotes About Assad
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[Bashar] Assad himself has said on several occasions recently that if the people of Syria don't believe I should be there in the future, then I would step - I would leave. He has said it. He has, on occasion, hinted that he wants a political settlement of one kind or another. I think it's up to his supporters, his strongest supporters, to make it clear to him that if you're going to save Syria, Assad has made a set of choices - barrel bombing children, gassing his people, torturing his people, engaging in starvation as a tactic of war.
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If you can resolve this transition of [Bashar] Assad, that is absolutely possible, but you have to have a clarity for everybody about the way forward.
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If Russia is there [in Syria] alone fighting them [ISIL], guess what? Russia becomes the target and Russia starts seeing - who knows - MANPADs will find their way in there, airplanes will fall out of the sky. They will become vilified. They'll become the new magnet, together with Assad, for the jihadis.
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Sunni are the majority of the [Syria], 60 to 65 percent. They've been ruled by [Bashar] Assad, who represents a minority Alawite element, which is about 12, 13 percent. And because of the choices Assad made, it's very difficult to see how you resolve this without buy-in from the Sunni world.
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If [Bashar] Assad himself could save this whole process by saying, "I will engage in a managed transition where we all work together to stabilize the government, save the institutions of government, and turn on ISIL and preserve Syria." That could happen. It all depends on one man, and Russia and Iran should not be so stubborn here that they tie this whole thing up simply because of one person.
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People talk about [Bashar] Assad running Syria. He doesn't control his own country. He's down to about 20, 25 percent of the country. What is this fiction that he is somehow the only person who can save Syria? There's - with Assad there, there is no Syria. So that's what the Iranians and the Russians need to really begin to focus in on.
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[Bashar] Assad has made a series of choices ever since then that is literally destroying his country.
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Three-quarters of [Bashar Assad] country is displaced. It's in Jordan, it's in Lebanon, it's in Turkey, and in the desert. The threat is that those people in the desert and others could become the next acolytes of ISIL if we don't find a way to join together to go after ISIL.
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And if [Vladimir Putin] does fight ISIL alone, how does it work out for Russia to have sided with Assad, sided with Iran, sided with Hizballah, when they're trying to reach out to the rest of the Sunni world in the region? That's not a good equation for Russia.
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You cannot bring peace in Syria as long as [Bashar] Assad is, in fact, there.
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I mean, all of these things that [Bashar Assad] has done, there's no way even if President Obama wanted to just play along that you could actually achieve peace, because there are 65 million Sunni in between Baghdad and the border of Turkey, Syria, and Iraq, who will never, ever again accept Assad as a member - as a legitimate leader.
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Related Authors
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Barack Obama 44th U.S. President -
Vanessa Kerry Physician -
Ashton Carter United States Secretary of Defense -
Hillary Clinton Former United States Secretary of State -
Donald Trump 45th President of the United States -
Bashar al-Assad President of Syria -
Joe Biden Vice President of the United States -
David Cameron Prime Minister of the United Kingdom -
John McCain United States Senator -
Ronald Reagan 40th U.S. President -
Mitt Romney Former Governor of Massachusetts -
Benjamin Netanyahu Prime Minister of Israel -
George W. Bush 43rd U.S. President -
Alexandra Kerry Filmmaker -
Teresa Heinz Businesswoman -
William J. Clinton 42nd U.S. President -
Sergey Lavrov Diplomat -
Mohammad Javad Zarif Diplomat -
Chuck Hagel United States Secretary of Defense -
Al Gore Former Vice President of the United States